Family of missing Prince Albert woman still hopeful

The family of Happy Charles says she’s missed and they want to bring her home.

“It’s been a frustrating journey. It’s been a roller coaster of a journey,” said Carson Poitras, Happy Charles’ stepfather.

Five years after Charles' disappearance, family members, friends, police and members of the public gathered outside Prince Albert Collegiate Institute on Sunday, on the five-year anniversary of her disappearance for an awareness walk.

Charles was last seen on video surveillance footage near the high school on April 3, 2017.

Poitras says the walks and missing person billboards of Happy Charles have helped generate information about her disappearance.

“As long as the tips keep coming in it seems like a good thing and we still have the hope that we can find her and bring her home,” said Poitras.

Prince Albert Police Services (PAPS) Chief Jonathan Bergen, Sgt. Kathy Edwardsen, inspectors and victim services personnel participated in the walk.

Edwardsen is the lead investigator of the Historical Missing Persons and Unsolved Homicide Section of Prince Albert police and has worked with the family on the case for the past five years.

“We’re hoping someone comes forward with the actual truth of what happened to Happy Charles,” said Edwardson.

She says PAPS is still actively following up on tips and looking for answers.

Charles had travelled to Prince Albert from her home in La Ronge to visit her boyfriend according to her family. She has a scar on her left cheek and a rose tattoo on her left hand.

Poitras is advocating for a separate office for the families of missing Indigenous people in Saskatchewan so leads are investigated within the first 48 hours of a person going missing and areas are properly searched.

“So that we have those resources readily available like the visible vest, the walkie-talkies, dogs, airplanes, drones and all that kind of stuff readily available,” Poitras said.

He says he also met with Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs, Carolyn Bennett and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls to ask for a separate office.

“We’re never going to forget about her, that’s not going to change until we can bring her home,” said Poitras.

Charles is a member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band and has four children and six grandchildren. Their mother was 42 years old when she went missing in Prince Albert.

Her youngest son Leito Morin was eight years old when she disappeared. He says he misses her every day.

“It’s hard to remember her,” said Morin as he brushed away tears as he talked with media before the walk.

He’s now a Grade 8 student in Churchill Community High School in La Ronge.

“I wish I could have went on more of them. It probably hurts more because this is my first one (awareness walk) and I’m not used to it.”

Also taking part in the walk was the family of Kevin Charles, 16, and Mary Goodfellow, 60, who disappeared on April 3, 1976. They have been missing for 29 years and were last seen at Chitek Lake, Sask.

“I know the pain they are going through. It’s an open wound until I find my son and Mary and bring them home,” said the mother of Kevin Charles, Marlene Charles.

She says the two families have supported one another and she would also like a separate office to assist in missing persons cases.

Regina Poitras, Charles’ mother, says she and her husband Carson are the ones who work with the police on the investigation to spare her children but says they haven’t been able to shield them from the pain of missing their mother.

The family says they’ll continue to do the walks on the anniversary of her disappearance until Charles' is found.